


The Kidnapping

by Anonymous



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: BAMF!JARVIS, Canon child neglect, Canon domestic violence, Genius children, Kid!Fic, Kidnapping, M/M, Not really an AU, canon child abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-13
Updated: 2014-09-13
Packaged: 2018-02-17 06:49:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,777
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2300360
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Four decades ago, at age six and a half, Bruce was at the height of his criminal career when he attempted to kidnap Tony Stark. Things didn't quite work out.</p><p>[Note: Howard and Maria Stark are jerks in this story. I know MCU-Howard loved Tony, but I chose to ignore that.]</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Kidnapping

**Author's Note:**

> I am using the MCU time-line, where Bruce was born in December 1969, and Tony was born in May 1970. So in June 1976, Tony is six and Bruce is six and a half.

It was June of 1976, and at age six and a half, Bruce Banner was poised to take the world by storm.

 

Four months prior, he was a child cowering under a table watching his father beat his mother to death for the crime of trying to protect her son. Having watched his father literally get away with murder, he ran away with nothing but the clothes on his back.

 

Two months ago, Bruce made his first forays into crime, having encountered insurmountable difficulties finding legal work at his age.

 

And now, just four months after running away from home, Bruce had made a name for himself in all forms of digital crime--network infiltration, corporate espionage, high tech theft. Anything electronic was something he could hack.

 

Some part of Bruce knew his winning streak couldn't last, of course, but he didn't dwell on those thoughts. What mattered was that he was on top of his game. He was in control of his life. His brilliance, that same brilliance that once convinced his father that Bruce was a monster who needed to be beat to death, now propelled his success, allowing him to cruise through computer systems like he was born for it and manipulate all security devices, from old fashioned safe locks to cutting edge biometric scanners.

 

Bruce had never known confidence before, but now he knew nothing else. The feeling intoxicated him, stimulated him, propelled him to find bigger and bigger challenges. This came to a head when he decided to go for the greatest criminal challenge of the decade, the holy grail of crime: kidnapping Tony Stark.

 

The first part of Bruce's plan was as easy as conning his way into Spark, Tony's summer science program, inviting Tony over, and convincing the counsellors that he had both their parents' permission to take Tony home.

 

But Tony Stark was a lot more than Bruce expected.

 

"Wow, Ryan, are those PIC micro-controllers?" Tony asked, eyes widening as he approached Bruce's desk.

 

"Pretty much," Bruce said. "How did you know that?"

 

"Read about them in a journal. They haven't been released to consumers, yet, though, so where'd you get one?"

 

Bruce smiled. "I made them. I stole the plans from a Harvard research lab. That's kind of what I do."

 

"That's amazing! Can I see the plans?"

 

"Sure," Bruce said, pulling out the plans for the PIC from under his blue box.

 

"Wow," Tony said. Then he picked up one of Bruce's PICs. "Wait, this isn't actually what's in the plans."

 

"Dang, you are good," Bruce smiled. He hadn't expected Tony to be able to see the difference, much less at a glance. "I realised that with a little tweaking, I could implement shadow registers and to make it easier to handle output."

 

"Can I see _your_ plans?" Tony asked.

 

"Sure," Bruce said, flipping the page over to show Tony his modifications.

 

"This is so cool," Tony said. "I've never met anyone like you."

 

 _You're damn right you haven't,_ Bruce thought to himself. But he knew not to get too complacent, not in the middle of a crime. He noticed that Tony was tracing his fingers over a few parts of the plans.

 

"Thoughts?" Bruce prompted.

 

"What are you using these for?" Tony said.

 

"Lots of things. But, primarily, I'm planning on splicing them into circuits to manipulate Weigand signals."

 

Tony snorted. "Electronic locks. You mean hacking electronic locks. What, so you can go steal even more plans? I like you."

 

"Well, it's easier to steal plans electronically by Trojan rather than in person, but yes, like I said: tech theft, it's what I do."

 

"Hm," Tony said, looking back at the plans. "See, with your tweaks, it would make more sense to make the call stack read and writeable. Also, if we extend the FSRs to 12 bits, they could linearly address the whole space."

 

Any thought Bruce had about staying on task flew out the window as he and his ~~new friend~~ mark delved into improving the circuits.

 

It wasn't until two hours later when Tony was busy concentrating on soldering that Bruce managed to sneak out to make a ransom call. He glanced at Howard and Maria Stark's phone numbers, which he had found by guessing a secretary's email password, and hesitated for a moment about whom to call.

 

Children tended to have closer bonds with their mothers, but on the other hand, Tony was obviously a genius engineer like his father, so maybe he was closer to his dad. On the _other_ other hand, in their two hours together, he never mentioned his father, and Bruce knew as well as anyone that inheriting a parent's traits may not signal any bond with that parent. Brian Banner was, after all, a physics genius, too.

 

In the end, after weighing the odds, he called Maria.

 

"Hello, Mrs Stark. My name is Chaos and I am calling about Tony," Bruce said when Maria picked up the phone.

 

"Tony?" Maria asked.

 

"Tony Stark? Your son?" Bruce prompted. 

 

Tony was more than two hours late going home. Surely she had been worried?

 

"Oh, Tony, what about him?" Maria said with a slight drawl.

 

Apparently she was not worried.

 

"You didn't notice?" Bruce said, unable to contain his surprise.

 

"Notice what? And where did you get this number? Look, honey, my charity's running an event tonight, and I can't have you clogging the phone line. Could you schedule an appointment with my secretary next time?"

 

She hung up.

 

Slightly miffed, Bruce decided to call Tony's dad.

 

"Hello Mr Stark. My name is Chaos, and I am calling about Tony," Bruce said.

 

"Tony? He's with his mother today. My secretary can set you up with her."

 

"But--"

 

"Can't talk now. I've got a meeting. Bye."

 

Bruce blinked at the telephone for a few seconds. Those calls went more strangely than he had expected. Still he had always been an expert at rolling with the punches, be it literally or metaphorically.

 

***

 

"There you are!" Tony said as soon as Bruce stepped back in. "Where were you? I added another FSR and integrated it with the rest of the circuit."

 

Bruce forced himself not to get pulled into Tony's whirlwind.

 

"Er, Tony? There's something I need to tell you."

 

Tony furrowed his eyebrow as he turned to face Bruce.

 

"So... you know how we had Miss Jenny call your mother and she said you could come over as long as you got home for dinner?"

 

"Let me guess, Miss Jenny didn't actually talk to my mother? You rerouted the call somehow and hired a voice actress?"

 

Bruce gaped. "How...?"

 

Tony smirked. "Okay, so first of all, the phone number listed for me in the program directory doesn't go to my parents. It goes to Jarvis's mobile. Jarvis being the butler. Secondly, mum would never have asked me to be home for dinner. It's not like she ever comes home for dinner. I eat with Jarvis."

 

"Did Jarvis find Spark for you, too?" Bruce started to understand the situation.

 

"Of course," Tony said. "Did you really think Howard or Maria Stark would have time to scout out children's science programs?"

 

"Right. Of course not," Bruce agreed.

 

It wouldn't be too difficult to find the butler's mobile. He'd just have to hack the program directory.

 

"Hang on, but if you knew, why'd you come home with me?" 

 

"Seriously?" Tony's eyes widened. "You even have to ask?"

 

Bruce stared at him.

 

"Because you're the first person I met who gets it. Because you don't think I'm weird just 'cause I'm Tony Stark. Because you can hack the telephone system? I could tell right then that we are gonna be friends. Becuase you are happy building stuff with me? You can keep up with me, but you don't call me stupid? Take your pick."

 

"People call _you_ stupid?"

 

Tony shrugged. "Well, if by people you mean person, and by person you mean my dad, yeah. I'll never be as clever as he wants me to be."

 

"Oh. Well, still better than being so clever he hates you for it," Bruce said knowingly.

 

"I'd rather be hated than ignored."

 

"You don't know anything about being hated," Bruce said.

 

"You don't know anything about being invisible," Tony said.

 

"Invisible doesn't get you second degree burns and broken bones," Bruce said, barely containing his rage. "Invisible doesn't get you cowering under a bed. Invisible doesn't get you watching your mother die protecting you, head smashed on the ground, blood in her hair, blood on the pavement, blood seeping into the cracks."

 

There was a long silence.

 

"You're right," Tony said. "I don't know anything about being hated. But _your_ mother would have noticed if you were gone for more than two hours."

 

 _Maybe she would have if she weren't dead_ , Bruce thought, but did not say. He conceded Tony's point.

 

"Well, if you're not going to be missed anyway, do you want to get dinner?" Bruce said instead. "I can order pizza."

 

Tony smiled.

 

Bruce and Tony didn't talk any more about their parents over pizza. Instead, they talked about telephone networks and phone phreaking. Bruce explained how he rerouted Miss Jenny's call, and it was all Bruce could do to stop Tony from touching Bruce's telephone phreaking device until after he washed the pizza grease off his hands.

 

Tony was washing his hands when the phone rang.

 

"I have to take this," Bruce called out to him, taking the phone outside.

 

******

 

"Chaos here," Bruce said.

 

"Hello. I am Edwin Jarvis, the butler of Stark Manor. I believe you have something of mine."

 

"I do," Bruce said. "And if you want to see him again, you will transfer me one million US dollars and the plans for the Brilliant Eyes Anti-Ballistic-Missile system."

 

"We'll get to that," Jarvis said, "but first, I need proof of life. Put Master Stark on the phone."

 

"Okay," Bruce knew any experienced negotiator would ask for proof of life, so he expected that much. "But just a heads up, he doesn't know that he has been kidnapped."

 

"Is that so?"

 

"As far as he's concerned, I'm his classmate from Spark and his new friend. I invited him over and now we're just two kids building stuff together. If you choose to let him know what the situation really is, I will be forced to take more drastic measures to keep him here. Measures that could cause mental and emotional trauma. Also, I will know if he starts telling you where we are, so don't try anything funny."

 

"Ah, of course," Jarvis said. "Please, put him on."

 

"Hey, Tony?" Bruce said, going back into the kitchen. "It's for you. It's Jarvis."

 

Tony took the phone from Bruce. He spoke to Jarvis about what he was doing, what he was building with Bruce, and how much fun he was having. Then, after a few minutes, he started fidgeting with his shirt and apologised to Jarvis for not letting him know where he was going beforehand. Tony tried to say that he thought he had his dad's permission, but Jarvis saw right through it. In the end, Jarvis accepted Tony's apology and reminded him to be home by his bedtime.

 

After their conversation a chastised Tony handed the phone back to Bruce.

 

"So you have your proof of life," Bruce said to Jarvis when he was out in the hall again. "Now you have two hours to wire me the money and email me the ABM plans."

 

"That will not be possible," Jarvis said. "I'm just a butler. I don't have that kind of money, and I certainly don't have military secrets."

 

"Well, get them from Howard Stark," Bruce said, frustration rising. "Even if he doesn't care about the kid, surely he knows how it would look to the media if he let his own son get kidnapped and killed?"

 

"He does. He knows they'll realise that he cares so much about national defence secrets that he'd put his own son's life on the line for it."

 

"You're bluffing," Bruce said, though he wasn't sure.

 

"Am I? You talked to his parents. Did any of their responses even hint to the idea that I'm bluffing?"

 

"You have to be. Say it's true. Say it's easy to kidnap Tony Stark, but it's the ransom part that's hard. Then answer me this: why isn't he dead? Haven't any other kidnappers tried it?"

 

"You haven't figured it out yet? Look out the window to the roof of the house across the street." 

 

Bruce did. A man talking on a mobile phone waved at him. He was tall, with slightly greying brown hair and the posture of a military man.

 

"My kitchen's rigged to explode," Bruce said. "He'd be dead before you got to him."

 

"Now who's bluffing?" Jarvis asked. "You're not a violent criminal, Chaos. The worst thing you've ever done was short Pfizer's stock before stealing and releasing their data--data that proved they were playing fast and loose with people's lives."

 

"What's your point?"

 

"You're way out of your league. You want to be the villain here, but you're not even half as cruel as your intended victim. But more importantly, you don't really care about the ABM plans, you're doing this for the reputation. And the problem with that is that all those reputation points aren't going to bring you real friendship."

 

"Don't get cavalier with me. I still have Tony Stark."

 

"I'm not. I'm offering you a better deal. Howard Stark budgets 50,000 US dollars a month for taking care of Tony Stark. Even including his fancy private school and private lessons, the costs aren't even a third of that. So I can offer you 30,000 dollars a month to do what you're doing anyway."

 

"Kidnapping him?"

 

Jarvis laughed. "What _he_ thinks you're doing. Being two kids building stuff together. For a few hours a week, that's better pay than most CEOs get."

 

"You can't be serious," Bruce said.

 

"I am. You are the first friend he's ever had. And I'm pretty sure he's yours. Think about it. In five years, you'll have the money and a friendship worth far more than imaginary criminal reputation points."

"I am not a whore," Bruce snarled into the phone and glared through the window at Jarvis. "You can't pay me to be someone's friend."

Then he hung up.

 

"What happened?" Tony asked when Bruce returned.

 

"Nothing," Bruce said with a huff. "Your Jarvis. He's a laugh."

 

Tony tilted his head. "He can be overbearing, but he is the best person in the world."

 

"I can see that," Bruce said. "And he's going to get worried if we don't get you home soon."

 

"He said bedtime. My bedtime's not for another two hours," Tony suddenly frowned. "Unless... Oh. I'm sorry if I've overstayed my welcome? I don't have to stay. In fact--"

 

"No, that's not it," Bruce said, "I love hanging out with you. I've never met anyone like you."

 

As he spoke, Bruce realised it was true. Though Jarvis had been presumptuous, he had also been correct in deducing that Tony was the closest thing Bruce had ever had to a friend. When he was planning this crime, Bruce never considered Lima Syndrome to be a possible problem.

 

"Damn right you haven't," Tony grinned. "Now let's see how we can make your blue-box better."

 

An hour later, Tony was still chattering about network infiltration and telephone phreaking tossing around idea after idea after idea when Bruce walked him back to Stark Manor. Jarvis greeted them at the door. He invited Bruce in, and when Bruce refused, he asked Bruce to keep in touch. Jarvis never once dropped the pretence that Bruce and Tony were just friends.

 

He kept that pretence going for the next eight years. He encouraged the boys to email each other, though they did so only sporadically. Bruce saw Tony once more at Jarvis's funeral. Tony didn't see Bruce. The emails stopped after that.

 

******

 

Decades later, Bruce met Tony again on the bridge of a Helicarrier. By then, Bruce really was the monster he'd tried to be at six and a half. By then, Tony had made himself a superhero--one nobody could ignore. But sometimes, when the light hit just right, Bruce could still see the vulnerability that plagued a six-year-old so long ago. He could still see the curiosity and the passion and the all-consuming loneliness.

 

One night, when Tony told him a story as they lay in bed, a story about a kid he'd met at a summer science program once, Bruce did not say anything. After all, what could he say?


End file.
